Oscar 2025 picks

[dougo]

For the past five years, I've seen every single Oscar-nominated film before the Academy Awards ceremony. This is my third year officially competing in the Oscars Death Race, but sadly this was my worst showing: I saw the 50th film on March 5th, putting me in 176th place on Death Race Tracking. (171st place on Oscars Death Race, which I guess has a slightly different set of users.) I suspect this is partly because there are a lot more racers than last year, but also Sirāt didn't arrive in local theaters until that week, and I prefer not to pirate feature films (I did get ahold of one of the doc shorts because I had seen all the others streaming and the doc shorts collection didn't have any convenient showings). Anyway, the goal is just to finish, and I shouldn't care much about leaderboard placement. Right??

So yeah, here is my annual post about what I would have voted for on my Oscar ballot, if I had been eligible to vote in every branch of the Academy. In other words, these are not my predictions (though I also did those on the ESPN Oscars Pick'em site). A number in parentheses is my rating for that movie (our of 10). Sorry, no time left to write up more thoughts other than the rankings! Enjoy the awards ceremony!

Best Picture

1. Train Dreams (8)
2. Bugonia (8)
3. Sinners (7)
4. The Secret Agent (7)
5. F1 (7)
6. Marty Supreme (6)
7. Hamnet (6)
8. Sentimental Value (6)
9. One Battle After Another (6)
10. Frankenstein (6)

See my Best Picture thoughts.

Best Director

1. Ryan Coogler, Sinners (7)
2. Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (6)
3. Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value (6)
4. Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme (6)
5. Chloé Zhao, Hamnet (6)

Best Actor

1. Michael B. Jordan, Sinners (7)
2. Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme (6)
3. Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon (6)
4. Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent (7)
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another (6)

Best Actress

1. Emma Stone, Bugonia (8)
2. Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (7)
3. Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue (4)
4. Jessie Buckley, Hamnet (6)
5. Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value (6)

Best Supporting Actor

1. Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another (6)
2. Delroy Lindo, Sinners (7)
3. Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (6)
4. Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value (6)
5. Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein (6)

Best Supporting Actress

1. Amy Madigan, Weapons (8)
2. Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners (7)
3. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value (6)
4. Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value (6)
5. Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another (6)

Best Casting

1. Sinners -- Francine Maisler (7)
2. One Battle After Another -- Cassandra Kulukundis (6)
3. Marty Supreme -- Jennifer Venditti (6)
4. The Secret Agent -- Gabriel Domingues (7)
5. Hamnet -- Nina Gold (6)

Best Original Screenplay

1. It Was Just an Accident -- Jafar Panahi (8)
2. Sinners – Ryan Coogler (7)
3. Marty Supreme -- Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie (6)
4. Blue Moon -- Robert Kaplow (6)
5. Sentimental Value -- Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt (6)

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Bugonia -- Will Tracy (8)
2. Train Dreams -- Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar (8)
3. Frankenstein -- Guillermo Del Toro (6)
4. Hamnet -- Maggie O'Farrell and Chloé Zhao (6)
5. One Battle After Another -- Paul Thomas Anderson (6)

Best International Feature

1. Spain, Sirât (8)
2. France, It Was Just an Accident (8)
3. Brazil, The Secret Agent (7)
4. Norway, Sentimental Value (6)
5. Tunisia, The Voice of Hind Rajab (6)

Best Animated Feature

1. Arco (8)
2. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (7)
3. Elio (5)
4. Zootopia 2 (5)
5. KPop Demon Hunters (4)

Best Documentary Feature

1. The Alabama Solution (8)
2. Mr. Nobody Against Putin (8)
3. Come See Me in the Good Light (8)
4. Cutting Through Rocks (6)
5. The Perfect Neighbor (5)

Best Animated Short

1. Retirement Plan (7)
2. Forevergreen (6)
3. The Girl Who Cried Pearls (6)
4. Butterfly (6)
5. The Three Sisters (5)

Best Live-Action Short

1. Jane Austen's Period Drama (8)
2. Butcher's Stain (7)
3. A Friend of Dorothy (6)
4. Two People Exchanging Saliva (4)
5. The Singers (4)

Best Documentary Short

1. The Devil is Busy (7)
2. Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (6)
3. Children No More: 'Were and Are Gone' (6)
4. All the Empty Rooms (4)
5. Perfectly a Strangeness (4)

Best Cinematography

1. Train Dreams -- Adolpho Veloso (8)
2. Sinners -- Autumn Durald Arkapaw (7)
3. Frankenstein -- Dan Laustsen (6)
4. One Battle After Another -- Michael Bauman (6)
5. Marty Supreme -- Darius Khondji (6)

Best Editing

1. F1 -- Stephen Mirrione (7)
2. Sinners -- Michael P. Shawver (7)
3. One Battle After Another -- Andy Jurgensen (6)
4. Marty Supreme -- Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie (6)
5. Sentimental Value -- Olivier Bugge Coutté (6)

Best Visual Effects

1. Sinners (7)
2. F1 (7)
3. The Lost Bus (6)
4. Avatar: Fire and Ash (5)
5. Jurassic World Rebirth (6)

Best Production Design

1. Frankenstein (6)
2. Hamnet (6)
3. Sinners (7)
4. Marty Supreme (6)
5. One Battle After Another (6)

Best Costume Design

1. Sinners -- Ruth E. Carter (7)
2. Hamnet -- Malgosia Turzanska (6)
3. Frankenstein -- Kate Hawley (6)
4. Marty Supreme -- Miyako Bellizzi (6)
5. Avatar: Fire and Ash -- Deborah L. Scott (5)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

1. Kokuho (5)
2. Sinners (7)
3. The Ugly Stepsister (5)
4. The Smashing Machine (4)
5. Frankenstein (6)

Best Song

1. "Sweet Dreams of Joy" from Viva Verdi! (6)
2. "Train Dreams" from Train Dreams (8)
3. "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters (4)
4. "I Lied to You" from Sinners (7)
5. "Dear Me" from Diane Warren: Relentless (7)

Best Score

1. Bugonia -- Jerskin Fendrix (8)
2. Sinners -- Ludwig Göransson (7)
3. Frankenstein -- Alexandre Desplat (6)
4. Hamnet -- Max Richter (6)
5. One Battle After Another -- Jonny Greenwood (6)

Best Sound

1. Sirāt (8)
2. F1 (7)
3. Sinners (7)
4. One Battle After Another (6)
5. Frankenstein (6)